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Cogeco Cable Deploys Ciena’s CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform

Represents Ciena’s first cable network deployment in Canada

Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that Cogeco Cable (TSX: CCA), a telecommunications company offering a diverse range of services to customers in Canada and Portugal, has deployed the Company’s CN 4200™ FlexSelect™ Advanced Services Platform, the only platform that can be programmed to support any mix of SONET/SDH, Ethernet, storage or video services at any speed on any port at any time, as part of an initiative to transition its core infrastructure from SONET to Ethernet.

An international operator with cable systems in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec as well as in Portugal, Cogeco Cable supports nearly 2.2 million revenue-generating units across a suite of advanced voice, video and data services for residential and business customers. In the first phase of its network transition, Ciena’s CN 4200 platforms have been deployed throughout Cogeco Cable’s largest cable systems in Ontario. Additional phases currently underway will extend the CN 4200 roll-out to support a majority of the operator’s networks in Ontario.

“Our bandwidth needs are accelerating based on consumption of our advanced services – from strong triple play demand to more high-definition and video-on-demand programming – so we are updating our core infrastructure to give us greater flexibility in scaling capacity without having to support multiple platforms for each service or make additional investments in the future,” said Denis Bélanger, vice president, Corporate Engineering and Development for Cogeco Cable. “By carrying our existing SONET traffic at the same time as the new Gigabit Ethernet streams we are adding, Ciena’s CN 4200 creates the most flexible network foundation for us to transition our network at our own pace and protects our investment by being able to simply reprogram the SONET ports to Ethernet when we are ready.”

Ciena's CN 4200, the flagship product of its FlexSelect Architecture, is the first multiservice transport and service aggregation platform capable of supporting the migration to packet networks using future-ready technology such as ITU G.709 Optical Transport Network (OTN) for transparent service multiplexing, remote service provisioning and management, and dynamic wavelength and sub-wavelength routing featuring a hybrid optical/electrical ROADM solution, which reduces wavelength consumption by up to 78 percent. Using software-defined service ports, it is capable of on-demand support for any transport or service protocol—including SONET/SDH, Ethernet, storage (Fibre Channel, FICON, ESCON) or video—at any speed on any available port.  The CN 4200 has been certified by the Metro Ethernet Forum as part of its Carrier Ethernet Certification Program.

“This is a significant agreement for Ciena as it represents our first deal with a Canadian MSO, which only strengthens our transport leadership in the global cable market,” said Mike Aquino, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Ciena. “More importantly, not only does the CN 4200 deliver the capacity and resiliency to deliver high-performance Ethernet transport, its programmable interfaces enable cable operators to expand services to business customers at any time, including Ethernet private line, Ethernet LAN and storage extension services.”

In addition to the CN 4200, Cogeco Cable is also using Ciena’s ON-Center® Network and Service Management Suite that offers network operators a unique set of tools for efficient service deployment and proactive network management.

Ciena is a leader in optical Ethernet switching and transport for cable networks based on multi-system and operator-wide deployments with MSOs worldwide, including ARMSTRONG Cable, Cablevision, Cogeco Cable, Cox Communications, J:COM and others. Ciena’s platforms are the backbone of broadband cable networks passing more than 22 million homes and businesses and provide practical solutions for converging and transitioning networks to high performance Ethernet for broadcast video distribution, VOD, CMTS backhaul of VoIP and high speed data, storage extension other and commercial services.